Eagles Tie Series
Eagles Tie Series
Eagles Tie Series
The Ateneo Blue Eagles showed the heart of a champion as they asserted themselves in Game 2
of the best-of-three Finals series in the 2009 Philippine Collegiate Champions League (PCCL)
with a resounding 90-63 win over the Far Eastern University Tamaraws, to tie the series up at 1-
1 yesterday at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City.
Pushed to the brink of elimination following FEU's 75-70 win in Game 1, the Blue Eagles came
alive as they broke the game wide open with a 23-6 run in the second period before pulling away
entirely in the second half. At the helm of the scoring spree were Nico Salva and Eric Salamat
who combined to score more than half the team's total output.
Salva topbilled for the Blue Eagles with 26 points and nine rebounds while Salamat, the wily
guard who has had a notorious history of performing poorly in the finals of any league, broke out
of his shell with 20 points and three steals.
FEU held a 17-15 lead but then, suddenly just disappeared as they allowed Ateneo to take a 38-
21 lead courtesy of Salva's 13 first half points. FEU managed to slice the lead down to nine, 33-
42, heading into halftime as JR Cawaling anchored a late 8-0 run.
However, Ateneo came out with more fire in the third canto as Nonoy Baclao scored the first
five points, off a drive and a three-point shot to put his team back up by 14, 47-33.
Back-to-back baskets by Salva raised the lead up to 22, 69-47, before two free-throws by Paul
Sanga with no time remaining in the third stanza pegged the score at 69-49.
FEU guard RR Garcia, the hero of Game 1 where he scored 22 points, was shackled to just two
points in his 27 minutes of action. The rest of the starters including Cawaling and Aldrech
Ramos was benched for most of the second half. Cawaling scored 18 to lead FEU while Ramos
added 12 markers.
The winner-take-all Game 3 is set on Sunday at the same venue. Ateneo is gunning for their
second PCCL title while FEU is aiming for their third.